St. Patricks Cathedral (Steeples)

[DBeck]

Here is a before and after of a shot I took of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Nyc. The cathedral is huge and surrounded by buildings, but I wanted to capture just the steeples, which can be difficult. Here are the camera settings:

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/256)
Aperture: f/5.7
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

In Post Production, here are the steps I took:

I ran the raw file through Photomatix, adjusting tone mapping and contrast
I then opened the file in Photoshop CS4 and cloned the building to fill the sky
I then did a mask of the steeples, which was the hardest part
I then did a maximum blur on the background which was the building behind it

The tone mapping had done just the right amount on the building to allow for the gold gradient behind the steeples when blurred.

[windrider86]

so the background is really the cloned steeples but blurred?

[DBeck]

No, the building behind the steeples I cloned and filled in the sky. This was done after the tone mapping. The tone mapping produced just the right amount of gold tone to the building to allow the gradient gaussian blur.

[SusanH1970]

What a great idea - I have quite a few pictures of St. Pat's that I've taken, and I love how you've done this to show off the incredible architecture.